iPod Nano 7th Generation Constantly Pauses

My problem was lint also. Normally my iPod (purchased refurbished from Apple) lives in a pocket with the earbuds plugged in. Today they spent a time in my pocket separated. When I inserted the jack, it just didn't feel properly seated, and I started having all the no sound and pausing problems described above. Restarting, etc. did not help. But, after reading these posts, I simply probed the ear phone connector with a thin, flat wooden toothpick...and out came a wad of soft pocket lint. Now my iPod works perfectly again! Thanks to all for the many good ideas.

Terribly disappointed with my 7th generation Nano. I had a 3rd gen, and NEVER had an issue (8 years). I got a 7th gen, and the headphone jack / pause issue was there within the first week. Tried different headphones, still pausing all the time. They replaced it and it worked for for about 3 months, and this one does the same thing. The issue is headphone jack itself. I ran the cord thru the back of the rubber arm case, which helps hold the cord to make a better connection, but on any run, or when rock climbing I have to hit play 20-30 times. Every hour. Loved Apple, but at this point I am done with Apple.

Hello all,

I was having the same problem for a few months but have recently found a solution. Here's how it went:

My iPod is only 3 years old, so I was confused as to why it was bugging out so much. It would pause and play songs on its own, change the volume, skip songs, and have random Siri voiceovers. Bottom line, I couldn't even listen to my iPod anymore because it got so bad. I tried many different things in order to try to fix the problem; reset iPod, remove and re-download all music, etc. None of these worked.

Nothing was fixing the problem until I noticed that when I was using my Apple earbuds with my other Apple devices (Macbook, iPhone) that these things were starting to happen on all my devices when I had the earbuds plugged in. In this situation, I found the common element: the earbuds. I started using a brand new pair of Apple earbuds, and the problem of constant pausing/playing, random voice over, and skipping of songs has completely subsided. I'm not certain if this will fix anyone else's issues with random pausing/playing, but it worked for me so I thought posting it on here would help someone.

Try it out for yourself and hopefully it fixes your issues!

This was driving me nuts also. I was trying to connect my nano 7th to a mixing board with a cable. Tried maybe 5 different cables. Most would work if you press hard but if you moved the ipod, it would stop playing. My bose headphones however worked fine. Modifying the cable plug worked for me: Seems the problem is that most 1/8" stereo jacks are just a bit too short. I modified a radio shack cord with a 1/8 plug (turned in an L shape, though a straight plug would also work). I held the plug with a pliers and used a hack saw to cut away the base turning the plug around a few times as I went. That allowed the plug to fit deeper into the headphone jack. Works now.

Sadly this didn't work after all. The plug clicks nicely into place, which it didn't do previously and the nano doesn't shut off when moving it. But it seems I'm not getting full audio on both channels. Maybe I damaged the plug when sawing into the base or perhaps the sections of the plug are not lining up correctly inside the jack. I'll try performing surgery another plug.

A follow-up -- I suspect the surgery approach will work if done right. I never experimented much. However, I recently lost my nano and bought a newer one on ebay. It appears to be one of those issued in 2015 with more limited colors. Guess what? -- no more headphone problems. The jack feels tighter plugging in headphones. Either Apple corrected the issue or the headphone jack fails over time with use. Sure hope it's the former.

I was sent a refurbished Ipod nano 7gen by Apple to replace an Ipod that the play/pause button broke on, and I have been having a very similar problem with the both the voice-over and play pause freaking out at the same time.

I will be listening to a song and it will start randomly play/pausing, then the voice-over will start freaking out by listing the song that I'm listening too, start going through the other playlists on the ipod, start playing songs from a new playlist, start jumping back and forth between songs on the new playlist, all the while randomly starting the voice-over over and over again for each new song and playlist. It goes on indefinitely until I put the ipod in sleep mode. Most of the time I bring it back out of sleep it still wont function properly, but sometimes it will start working again if I let it sit for a few hours.

I have contacted apple support and the guy who helped me said that I could try doing a hard reset ,which didn't work, or restoring the ipod to factory settings through itunes. This worked the first time for 2 weeks of heavy use (pretty much 6hrs every day use), didn't work the second time, and worked the third time for one week of non use (I left the ipod on my table paused on a LONG song and watched to see if it had play/paused on its own or randomly changed songs, which it did not for a week of observation) followed by two days of moderate use (around 6hrs a day again, with each day being about three days apart). The second day it started to freak out again, so I left it in sleep mode for about 3hrs and then used it again and it stropped freaking out. The "second day" I'm referring to is the same day I'm typing this, so I haven't had a chance to see how long it will continue to work properly.

Now this wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that resetting my ipod to factory settings causes a disconnect error with my external hard drive every time, which requires me to unplug and plug back in my external hard drive each time for my computer to recognize it. I have no idea why this happens, but I do know it is a nuisance.

I have no lasting solution for anyone, everything I've done is just a temporary solution that doesn't fix the permanently.

Your iPod can receive remote control signals through the headphones jack, from buttons on the cord. Even if your headphones do not have control buttons on the cord, your iPod may be receiving false signals. The things you describe sound like things you can do from remote control buttons.

If you have not already, try using different headphones, to see if the problem goes away. Make sure the headphones plug is fully inserted into headphones jack. It should click into place when fully seated. The plug being slightly misaligned may produce false signals while still allowing audio to be heard.

I've been having this exact same problem with a refurbished Ipod nano 7gen that Apple sent to replace an Ipod that the play/pause button broke on, and I have been having a very similar problem with the both the voice-over and play pause freaking out at the same time.

I will be listening to a song and it will start randomly play/pausing, then the voice-over will start freaking out by listing the song that I'm listening too, start going through the other playlists on the ipod, start playing songs from a new playlist, start jumping back and forth between songs on the new playlist, all the while randomly starting the voice-over over and over again for each new song and playlist. It goes on indefinitely until I put the ipod in sleep mode. Most of the time I bring it back out of sleep it still wont function properly, but sometimes it will start working again if I let it sit for a few hours.

I don't use apple earbuds because they wont stay in my ears for more than a minute or so before they get forced out by the shape of my ear, so I just use wrap around headphones. Problem is I use these same earphones on my other ipod nano 7gen (blue), and have never had any of these problems with play/pause voice-over glitches and errors that I have on the first one (black).

With your info I'm beginning to wonder if it's the audio jack on the ipod that's causing these issues. I will try using a different pair of headphones first to see if its the earphones I'm using now, or if its the audio jack in the ipod that's broken. I'll update when I have more info.

After reading all the replies which is the announce coming on intermittently, I believe that these nano's are defective and Apple should issue a recall on them.

Happens to me if my earbud/car cord move even a little bit. REALLY frickin' annoying! About ready to get rid of my iPod and just use my Android phone.